Winter's Breath
by SarahAndIchigo
Summary: Edmund felt the summer in his bones before the snow had even begun to melt around him. {The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe}


Edmund felt the summer in his bones before the snow had even begun to melt around him.

* * *

Jadis was becoming restless; the air she touched was simply not cold enough. It was unbearable. Whenever Edmund dared to look up at her now, there was a chill piercing so deep, he was frozen - rooted to the ground like all these ancient trees with their aching branches hanging low, no longer desperate for the warmth they had died waiting for.

He glanced at the trees now, thinking of his youngest sister and how she had spoken of this pretty little Paradise; how her Faun friend had spun stories about forests alive and fires burning at the heart of merry souls, dancing the cold away. He hadn't believed Lucy then. The White Witch walked ahead, chin held high and the train of her dress following after. Edmund knew she wouldn't look back; he was as good as dead to her now. She had manipulated his greed and childish selfishness in vain, all was utterly futile as the remaining rightful rulers of Narnia pranced around her land, seeking a savior she knew she should fear. The White Witch feared little. Four pitiful Children of Adam with the eldest not yet a man and the youngest barely grown past infancy - they were easy prey.

And then there was the traitor. Filthy in manners and atrocious in his ways, Edmund was a child who even the White Witch, herself, could truly regard with disgust. His greed was endless, amusing in his infantile desperation to be powerful. It had been too easy to trick him into betraying those whose blood he shared in his veins, for a sugarcoated promise of sweets and a throne to himself, no less. Jadis smiled to herself, dark amusement crinkling the corners of her pale blue eyes. The child had felt no cold in her palace of ice, a selfish soul who occupied himself with only his own whims and desires. A son Adam would not have adored.

It was cold outside.

Edmund's hands trembled in the winter frost, trepidation knotting his starving stomach into aching tangles. He stole a glance at her again, at the loyal dwarves flanking her side with their heavy gait lining the pure snow with footsteps only the morning's snow would erase. All around him lay a wilderness in agony, trapped in the throes of the silent ice that devoured everything in her wake. He had no gloves to wear, only an old woman's coat his brother had shoved on his shoulders when they first stumbled into this world frozen in time. Edmund exhaled, his breath condensing into a cloud of melancholy in front of him, before slowly placing a palm on the bark of the birch nearest to him. Winter was never meant to last this long.

He was expecting cold; the warmth underneath the skin of the tree was barely there yet it jolted through his freezing fingers like lightning. His other hand quickly joined the first, fingers desperately trying to wrap around the width of the trunk, just for a little more. Warmth flooded his senses, coursing through blood that thawed as agonizingly slowly as a Narnian sunrise - but there it was. _S_ _ummer_ humming from within the core of the birch he was embracing, summer trickling precious life into his bones, summer in every hopeful thought he could conjure without laughing and exclaiming _'Aslan!_ ' at the very top of his battered lungs.

He could hear the White Witch halt in her path and even as the old fear threatened to climb into his limbs once more, he could not resist whispering into the air. 'Aslan, _you're here._ ' The name fell off his lips so softly, and he watched a snowflake dancing in the quiet of the dead forest. A laugh escaped him as he caught it in his hands, suddenly so very alive again. It melted away, dissolving into a whisper of faith before him.

Jadis was watching him. Eyes the color of December skies narrowed before hardening into stone; so what if Aslan was here? Victory was yet to be his, and the White Witch was a force to be reckoned with. Her winter was crumbling away around her as she stood there, snow falling away to reveal the living secrets her spell had hidden away. Trees with branches tentatively daring to touch the sun again, flowers peeking out underneath the imprints of her unforgiving feet on snow that was fast fading away before her.

This was _no_ defeat. _'Edmund.'_ Her voice had long forsaken the sweetness she had first lured him in with, natural hostility taking over. She beckoned the boy to her side. Edmund tore his gaze away from the wilderness blossoming around them to her face before looking around him again, delight dancing in his dark eyes. _She_ could never take this summer away now; she couldn't banish away the hope of a free Narnia like she had for a century. There was nothing to fear anymore.

* * *

 _Hey, Lu. I believe you now._

* * *

 **A.N:- Ahhh, I love Narnia so inexplicably much and I just wanted to write something for little Ed. ;u; He's such a precious little thing and it was fun giving him a little more to hope for. I hope he was in character and Jadis was elegantly horrific enough. Feel like watching the movies all over again. FAVE.**


End file.
